Below is my submission for this week’s Daily Post Writing Challenge Full Tanka
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_writing_challenge/full-tanka/
I pulled from the box
old photos; dour faces
staring back at me;
There is not one, a smile; but
just their sad look that graces
our new family
seeking ancient history;
For all they will have
is what is left to pass on
in this box of old faces
so I pulled it out
and began with my long search
looking for good clues
but learned it was not to be
so easy once I started
so I shoved it all
back into the dusty box
where they all remain
together even this day
sealed inside their box coffin
_______________
Footnotes on the above Tanka poems. This story poem is true fiction in the literal sense as I actually have over 30 years of successful family genealogy on my paternal grandfather’s German family from Russia with boxes full of not just photos of ancestors but piles and stacks of documents and many other resources used throughout the years as well as membership into one of the leading German Russian genealogy organizations. So, even though this story is fiction, my own family is not, and has a long heritage of Germans from Russia.
Joyce E. Johnson (2014)
